Orange Lipstick and Nail Polish
by McRai thePrinx
Summary: Genders are confusing and gender representation is even weirder. Mikey asks and April helps him out.


If the summary wasn't obvious enough this involves a transgender Mikey, because I really don't think there's enough transfeminine Mikey in the TMNT fandom. There really, really isn't. To be specific on my gender hc for Mikey: he's pangender, but decides to transition to present as feminine.

* * *

"Hey, um, April..?" Something about that was a bit odd.

"Yeah Mikey?" April looked up from her homework. Mikey looked… shy? "Is something wrong?" She put down her pencil worriedly.

"No!" Mikey flustered. "No, everything's hunky dory! Just… uh…" He hunched in on himself awkwardly, rubbing his arm. "Could you teach me how to do my own makeup?" Mikey brightened up a little and smiled hopefully.

April blinked. That… wasn't what she was expecting. She'd thought Raph had said something insensitive again.

"Well…" April tried to think of a response with turtle puppy dog eyes staring her in the face. "I… don't see why _not_." She admitted, sitting up to put her homework in her bag. "Let's go to my place, my stuff is all there." April said. She laughed at Mikey's excited whooping.

* * *

One long session of makeup lessons and application examples (and a lot of YouTube videos) later, April drew back with a pleased smirk. It was tricky to work around the fact that Mikey was a mutant turtle and couldn't use a lot of makeup. Especially because of his scales. But she'd finally done it. Even if it wasn't that great, since she rarely even did her _own_ makeup.

His face, especially the parts that moved a lot, were actually a lot less scaly and more skin like. Perfect to use lipstick, eyeliner, and a bit of eyeshadow on. Since he didn't have eyelashes she'd picked out some fake eyelashes she'd never used (and never really planned to, she _really_ didn't use makeup). The real final touch was lots and _lots_ of orange nail polish.

April reached over and grabbed a hand mirror, resting back on the bed's headboard in satisfaction. Her arms were aching from holding themselves in such an awkward position for so long. Not as much as they usually would, though, giving her a deep sense of satisfaction that her training was finally starting to show some result other than her appetite going through the roof.

Mikey took the mirror excitedly and then froze. April yawned, it was getting pretty late to still be up, and she had school tomorrow. Her dad was probably going to come in sometime soon and tell her to go to bed.

A sniffle was all April's warning that something was wrong. She opened her eyes and sat up, already worried over why _Mikey_ was _crying_ , but-

He was staring into the mirror, a wobbly smile on his face. He sniffed and laughed.

"Sorry I'm messing up your hard work!" The turtle looked at her and his shaky smile widened honestly, tears spilling over and falling on his mask. "I just… I _LOVE_ it!" He laughed, shell shaking as he kept on sobbing and laughing.

April quickly scooted over to pull him into a hug. "It's okay, Mikey! Just- you don't have to cry!" She laughed a little when he hugged her tightly back. "What's wrong?"

"N-nothing, honest. Just…" Mikey buried his head in her shoulder. He'd always been the touchy-feeliest of the turtles, used to hugging and cuddling with his brothers. "I… I didn't realize I wanted to be girly so much. I mean I knew I thought it looked fun and that I wanted to try it out but I just looked and saw myself and I look so _pretty_ and it feels _right-"_

"Woah woah there, slow down." April pat his shell and made sure he was breathing past the hiccups. "It's fine, Mikey, really."

She bit her lip thoughtfully. Mikey had always been more sensitive than the other Hamato brothers. More creative and gentle. She didn't want to stereotype, but looking at the situation… add in this new development and April had to at least _ask_. Knowing Mikey, he might have even not thought of it.

"Mikey? Do… do you want to be… a girl? Not a boy?" Oh that was probably too awkward. Her dad was more about this than she did. He was always supportive of the transgender community, but she'd never known anyone who was actually a part of it.

"Huh?" Mikey sat up and pulled away, a weird look on his face. "Uh… no, I don't _think_ so." He looked thoughtful. "I like being a guy turtle, but I guess if people thought I was a girl it would be awesome too." April nodded slowly.

"It's probably a little weird, huh." She kicked her legs, looking out over her room. She'd never really thought about gender before. She'd just… always been so sure she was a _girl_. There wasn't any question to it, even if she was a tomboy. "Just let me know if you do figure it out? I don't want to call you something wrong, some of the things Dad's said about it…"

The turtle shrugged. "Sure!" He said. Mikey tried to wipe away the tears that leaked into his mask. He pulled off his mask and had to blink a few times to get used to the fake eyelashes. "Could we have makeup nights?" Mikey looked at her hopefully.

"We can have make _over_ nights," April assured him, giggling when he whooped. "I don't think you'll really fit many things I have but I have this orange skirt I never wore…" Mikey was on his feet before she finished and she laughed.

Time to help Mikey find his sense of fashion.

* * *

I am a nonbinary afab person and I will laugh very loudly at flames. Send me requests and ideas for future oneshots with transfeminine Mikey!


End file.
